Scam

before the night she was in here.”
    “And you’d never seen her again after that, and then out of the blue she walks in here and asks you to tip me off to her?”
    “Essentially, yes.”
    “Why essentially?”
    “I don’t know. Forget essentially. The answer is yes.”
    I put up my hand. “Sandy, you’re very nervous and you’re not taking time to think. I want you to take time to think. To make sure you tell it right. Is it essentially yes, or is that exactly what happened?”
    “That’s exactly what happened.”
    “And the time she was in here with my client—you didn’t notice anything else special then?”
    “Well …”
    “Well, Sandy? Now there’s a well?”
    “I might have seen them leave.”
    The guy was getting so tied up in knots I was afraid to jump on that as hard as it deserved. “Uh-huh,” I said. “And when they did, was there anything special about the way they left? Anything worth commenting on?”
    “It seemed to me the guy was rather drunk and leaning on her a bit.”
    “Oh, really?”
    “That’s just how it seemed. I didn’t really have a good look. I mean if the guy was just trying to paw her, it would have looked the same way. You see what I’m saying?”
    “I see what you’re saying, Sandy. You seem to be saying a lot of stuff to try to make me think you weren’t involved. That you and the girl weren’t in this thing together.”
    “No, no, I swear.”
    “I’m trying to believe you, Sandy. It’s hard because I’m so desperate for information. So the more you tell me, the more I believe.”
    And if he bought that, the guy was more freaked out than I thought. I mean, hell, the reality was, the more he knew to tell me, the more it looked like he was involved.
    “I’m trying to help you all I can,” Sandy said. “I just don’t really know anything.”
    “Well, you knew about them leaving together. That’s something. But what I really want to know is why. Why this girl came to him, why this girl came to you, and why this girl wanted to get to me. Now, did she say anything at all when she walked into the bar that would give you a clue?”
    “Not really.”
    “Not really, Sandy?”
    “Aw, please,” Sandy said. “You’re picking on every word.”
    “Because I really need this information. Now, if there was anything she said that gave you a clue, I wanna hear it.”
    “Well, she did say it wasn’t just the money.”
    “What wasn’t just the money?”
    “Why she wanted me to do this.”
    “You mean tell me?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Whaddya mean it wasn’t just the money?”
    “That’s what she said. She said it wasn’t just the money, there was a lot of pressure on her.”
    “Pressure?”
    “Yeah.”
    “From who?”
    “From her agent.”
    “You mean her talent agent? The dead woman?”
    “Yeah.”
    Damn.
    “Was there anything else? Anything about who was putting the pressure on? Or why?”
    “No. I can’t remember exactly what she said, but that was all I got. That there was pressure on her to do this, and it came from the agent. If someone was pressuring the agent, that’s something I wouldn’t know.”
    “And the only one who might know is dead.”
    Sandy blinked.
    If I were any less involved, I might not have caught it. But I was so tuned in to the guy, looking for anything, that that’s all it took. One blink.
    “What is it, Sandy?” I said.
    And the guy dissolved.
    “Look,” he said, “you gotta understand. I don’t want to get in trouble. I’m in bad enough already. I mean, do the cops have to know?”
    “Know what, Sandy?”
    “All of this. What I’m telling you. That I didn’t tell ’em before.”
    “That remains to be seen, Sandy. Right now I don’t know. What I do know is you’re stalling. I just got through saying there was no way to find out what the girl and the talent agent knew. And it flashed in your mind that there was. When that happened, you blinked. When I noticed it, you panicked. And now, you’re covering up. So, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You ask me if the cops have to know. Well, if they do, that’s the hard way. You wanna try the easy way first, you try talking to me. But you try pulling the song and dance again, we’ll try talking to them. Your call. What’s it gonna be?”
    He put up his hand. “No, no. We can work this out.”
    “Let’s work it out now, Sandy. What is it you’re not telling me?”
    It was as if I could see the resistance actually drain out of him.
    He